Alfredo Viso, an exiled Cuban activist has shared the audio above (in Spanish) of Barbara Moya Portieles, mother of hunger striker Damaris Moya Portieles, an active dissident who finds herself in a delicate state of health due to the protest which she has been carrying out for more than 2 weeks. With this strike, Moya Portieles demands that the State Security agent Eric Francis Aquino Yera be taken before a tribunal for threatening to rape her 5 year old daughter. This threat occurred when Damaris was detained in a prison cell after having participated in a candlelight vigil for the release of all Cuban political prisoners in the city of Santa Clara in early May.

The government agent, Aquino Yera, explicitly told Damaris that he would rape her daughter and also ordered various common prisoners- who have committed violent crimes- to repeat the threat.

As soon as Damaris was released on the following day, she took her daughter- Lazara Conteras- out of school and has not let her go back since, because she fears that she may really be raped or kidnapped. After two weeks of not assisting class, the school principal began a legal process against the dissident, alleging that she has deprived her child of weeks of education. However, Moya Portieles affirms that her small daughter will not return to school until they can assure her that nothing will happen to her, something that no school or government official has done to the date.

Her mother, and the vast majority of the internal Cuban opposition, have called on the international community to show solidarity with Damaris Moya Portieles and her family. In fact, former political prisoner Jorge Luis Garcia “Antunez” announced the launch of a campaign by the name of “We Cannot Let Damaris Die”, which was convoked by the Orlando Zapata National Resistance Front. This campaign asks all Cuban dissidents and everyday citizens to carry out peaceful activities in support of the human rights activist.

There is also the video below, published on the YouTube account of Antunez (in Spanish), in which Barbara Moya offers another harrowing testimony, expressing much fear for the life of her daughter and the security of her grand-daughter: